Identifying USB ports
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My computer is festooned with USB ports and I thought they must all be 2.0 devices, but every time I plug in a new (for example) external hard drive I get a message to the effect of, "Errr, Dave, you know you could get a whole lot more performance if you plugged this device into a USB 2.0 port". It then displays a list of potential ports I could use. The problem I have six ports coming off the MB, which I assumed were USB 2.0, two on front and four on the back, plus a four-port PCI USB card that I could have sworn was a USB 2.0 (the packaging was disposed of immediately after installation), but I can't tell which device in the list is running on which hardware port, much less if any of them are actually USB 2.0. Is there any way to determine the capabilities of these ports? I can't seem to find anything useful from Device Manager. Thanks for any advice.
QRZ? de WAØTTN
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My computer is festooned with USB ports and I thought they must all be 2.0 devices, but every time I plug in a new (for example) external hard drive I get a message to the effect of, "Errr, Dave, you know you could get a whole lot more performance if you plugged this device into a USB 2.0 port". It then displays a list of potential ports I could use. The problem I have six ports coming off the MB, which I assumed were USB 2.0, two on front and four on the back, plus a four-port PCI USB card that I could have sworn was a USB 2.0 (the packaging was disposed of immediately after installation), but I can't tell which device in the list is running on which hardware port, much less if any of them are actually USB 2.0. Is there any way to determine the capabilities of these ports? I can't seem to find anything useful from Device Manager. Thanks for any advice.
QRZ? de WAØTTN
It's a bit of a dirty approach, but here goes: In USB 1.x, the programming interface from the PC to the USB controller wasn't standardised. Intel came up with one solution they called 'Universal Host Controller Interface' (UHCI) but there's a second solution defined by Compaq, Microsoft and National Semiconductor called 'Open Host Controller Interface', OHCI. I think this was partly a technology issue - OHCI reportedly requires less software and generally lower CPU usage - but also a licensing one. For USB 2.0, the software people put their collective feet down and insisted on a common controller interface, which is called Enhanced Host Controller (EHCI). In Device Manager, you'll typically see USB 2.0 controllers listed as USB2 Enhanced Host Controller. You can always find how a device is connecting to the system by selecting View, Devices by Connection from the menu. By expanding the tree, you can see whether a USB Hi-Speed device (connected to each port in turn) is connected to an EHCI or to a UCHI or OHCI controller. This is further complicated because physical ports can be 'connected' to both an EHC and a UHC/OHC. The system works out whether the device is requesting Hi-Speed (480Mbps) and if so, 'connects' it logically to the EHC. If not, it connects it logically to the UHC or OHC. That's why I suggest using a Hi-Speed device. Most modern integrated USB controllers actually do both in one chip or subsystem of the chip and the UHC or OHC presented to the OS is generally referred to as a virtual device.
DoEvents: Generating unexpected recursion since 1991
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My computer is festooned with USB ports and I thought they must all be 2.0 devices, but every time I plug in a new (for example) external hard drive I get a message to the effect of, "Errr, Dave, you know you could get a whole lot more performance if you plugged this device into a USB 2.0 port". It then displays a list of potential ports I could use. The problem I have six ports coming off the MB, which I assumed were USB 2.0, two on front and four on the back, plus a four-port PCI USB card that I could have sworn was a USB 2.0 (the packaging was disposed of immediately after installation), but I can't tell which device in the list is running on which hardware port, much less if any of them are actually USB 2.0. Is there any way to determine the capabilities of these ports? I can't seem to find anything useful from Device Manager. Thanks for any advice.
QRZ? de WAØTTN
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It's a bit of a dirty approach, but here goes: In USB 1.x, the programming interface from the PC to the USB controller wasn't standardised. Intel came up with one solution they called 'Universal Host Controller Interface' (UHCI) but there's a second solution defined by Compaq, Microsoft and National Semiconductor called 'Open Host Controller Interface', OHCI. I think this was partly a technology issue - OHCI reportedly requires less software and generally lower CPU usage - but also a licensing one. For USB 2.0, the software people put their collective feet down and insisted on a common controller interface, which is called Enhanced Host Controller (EHCI). In Device Manager, you'll typically see USB 2.0 controllers listed as USB2 Enhanced Host Controller. You can always find how a device is connecting to the system by selecting View, Devices by Connection from the menu. By expanding the tree, you can see whether a USB Hi-Speed device (connected to each port in turn) is connected to an EHCI or to a UCHI or OHCI controller. This is further complicated because physical ports can be 'connected' to both an EHC and a UHC/OHC. The system works out whether the device is requesting Hi-Speed (480Mbps) and if so, 'connects' it logically to the EHC. If not, it connects it logically to the UHC or OHC. That's why I suggest using a Hi-Speed device. Most modern integrated USB controllers actually do both in one chip or subsystem of the chip and the UHC or OHC presented to the OS is generally referred to as a virtual device.
DoEvents: Generating unexpected recursion since 1991
Hey, thanks very much for all the information Mike! I can see clearly now that the computer I was wondering about doesn't have any USB 2.0 ports at all. Armed with the info you gave me, I checked another computer and found that it has a bunch of USB 1.x ports, but it also has one EHC controller. So now my only other problem is to figure out which hardware jacks are fed by which controller. The one USB 2.0 controller says it has 8 ports, but there aren't that many USB jacks on the computer, so I'm assuming that not all of the hardware ports are actually coming out of the controller chip to jacks. At least this gives me more insight into identifiying what hardware I've got. Thanks again! Dave
QRZ? de WAØTTN
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Use usbview.exe. It will show you all the ports, decvices and capabilities on your machine.
Morality is indistinguishable from social proscription
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Hey, thanks very much for all the information Mike! I can see clearly now that the computer I was wondering about doesn't have any USB 2.0 ports at all. Armed with the info you gave me, I checked another computer and found that it has a bunch of USB 1.x ports, but it also has one EHC controller. So now my only other problem is to figure out which hardware jacks are fed by which controller. The one USB 2.0 controller says it has 8 ports, but there aren't that many USB jacks on the computer, so I'm assuming that not all of the hardware ports are actually coming out of the controller chip to jacks. At least this gives me more insight into identifiying what hardware I've got. Thanks again! Dave
QRZ? de WAØTTN
As I remember there is an option to enable USB 2.0 configuration in BIOS setup. Maybe you have 2.0 ports but they are not enabled, that's why when you plug your usb device you are getting that pop-up message. Regards.
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Little off the subject - I am looking for a easy way to convince windows that USB drive is a dynamic drive. In past I plugged the drive intenally and mark it dynamic than moved it onto USB hardware. But since my current external drive is "sealed" I cannot do that without voiding the warranty. Anyway, even when the USB drive is dynamic windows will regenerate it every time you turn the power on - no good. Looking for a real dynamic USB hard drive "fdisk" program. Vaclav (AA7EJ)